Implement five effective tips to improve your hiring process today.
Employee turnover is a challenge every hospitality manager faces. The inefficiencies it causes often have a negative effect on customer satisfaction, team morale, and the company’s bottom line. Fortunately, hiring the right candidates for your restaurant or hotel jobs can significantly reduce turnover. This means you won’t be wasting time training people who cannot perform. It also means you’ll be investing time in professionals who intend to stick around. All it takes are a few hiring process improvements you can implement today.
1. Cast a wide net.
There’s a reason commercial fishermen use nets. Doing so is the easiest way to catch the most fish in the shortest amount of time. You can take a similar approach when advertising open positions, thereby maximizing your chances of connecting with the best candidates. Ask your current employees for referrals, put notices where your clientele will see them, create a careers page on your company website and post the opportunity on Hcareers.com, a niche job board visited by thousands of hospitality professionals.
2. Involve others.
While it may ultimately be your responsibility to choose the new hire, additional perspectives on the candidates are always helpful. Consider including managers, assistant managers, and a few coworkers in the candidate selection and interview process. This can even help you build a stronger team, but we’ll talk more about that in a bit.
3. Interview consistently.
Communication is vital in most hospitality careers. Personality is important for many, while technical skill is essential for some. You’re likely to find candidates who shine in particular areas. However, don’t let any one factor—brilliant though it may be—distract you from the complete picture. Ask every candidate the same questions regardless. This will enable you to compare apples to apples.
4. Consider your teams.
A kitchen staff that works well together will be more efficient than one that does not. We can say the same about your wait staff, bartenders, housekeepers, and front desk employees. Consider team dynamics when choosing new employees. This means looking at more than experience, credentials, and technical proficiency, so make sure you ask specific questions about past team performance to assess each candidate’s potential.
5. Emphasize long-term benefits.
Recruiting, hiring, and training take time. You want to choose workers who will stick around and a professional with long-term goals will consider more than just the hourly wage when accepting a job offer. While you should offer the best basic benefits you can afford—including vacation, personal time, and health insurance—consider taking a longer-range view. Many professionals will find career mentoring and continuing education opportunities an attractive addition to the package.
The hospitality industry continues to grow—and restaurants, hotels, resorts, and casinos will always need new employees due to business increases and staff turnover. Make recruitment, assessment, and onboarding easier with these improvements to your hiring process.